Republicans see the president’s forthcoming announcement of new regulations to cut carbon emissions as an early gift going into the midterm elections, making a tough map for the other side that much tougher.

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The planned carbon emissions crackdown could make the president even more of an anchor on Democrats in deep-red states like West Virginia and Kentucky, where Senate candidates will have no choice but to distance themselves from unpopular policies pushed by the national party. And the new regulations pose a messaging challenge for vulnerable Democratic incumbents already facing competitive Senate races in other energy-rich states, including Alaska, North Carolina and Louisiana.

Republicans fondly remember the gains they made in 2010 after the failed Democratic push for cap-and-trade legislation. It’s unclear at this stage whether the president’s use of executive power to combat climate change will pack similar punch in the 2014 midterms.

“This issue is going to be at the very forefront, particularly in our federal races,” said West Virginia GOP Chairman Conrad Lucas. “Any Democrat is going to have to have some form of allegiance to the Democratic establishment to receive support. The carbon issue will be the first question anyone is asked here in the Senate race. … This issue is yet another one that backs them into a corner.”

Democrats in Washington note that a host of their candidates in 2012 — in states from Ohio to Virginia and Montana — survived onslaughts of energy-focused attacks.

But Kentucky Democratic consultant Jim Cauley, who managed Steve Beshear’s successful campaign for governor, said he is “absolutely worried” about Obama’s new push. He stressed that Ohio and Virginia are less economically dependent on coal than Kentucky, where Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell faces reelection next year.

“There’s a perception here that coal’s just taking it on the chin every day,” said Cauley. “We don’t have the luxury of big large urban centers to change our vote makeup. I think it’d be problematic.”

West Virginia Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican running for Senate, said Obama’s speech is “an exclamation point” on his 2008 suggestion that he wanted to bankrupt companies that tried to build new coal-fired plants.

“He can’t get congressional approval for this agenda so he’s going to forge ahead like he has on a lot of other things, ignoring the will of the people to satisfy his environmental friends,” she said in an interview.

Capito has no declared Democratic opponent yet, but she said the announcement Tuesday will become a big issue no matter what position he or she stakes out.

“Certainly on a national level any Democrat is going to have this anti-coal, environmental agenda all around their neck because their leader is the president,” she said. “I don’t think I can overdramatize how difficult this agenda is for states like ours.”

West Virginia Democratic Chairman Larry Puccio noted that Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin successfully distanced himself from Obama on coal in both 2010 and 2012. In one ad during the first race, he famously used a gun to shoot a copy of the cap-and-trade bill. Manchin, who was easily reelected, has already gone on record criticizing Obama’s planned executive actions.

“It didn’t work before, and I don’t know why anyone would believe that it would work this time,” said Puccio.

Republicans believed last year that the coal attack would be more potent than it ended up being. But Democrats aggressively responded and in several states neutralized the attack. In Virginia, Tim Kaine ran an ad of himself in a helicopter above a coal plant talking about his support for clean coal. In North Dakota, Heidi Heitkamp touted her support for building the Keystone Pipeline. In Missouri, Claire McCaskill talked about taking on the Obama administration over the EPA.